Joe Cassara of Supreme Memorials, Inc. and Rick Landman

This is a city owned park (not a private Jewish park) dedicated to the 6 million Jews and the other 5 million innocent victims. All we have been trying to do for 13 years to do give more details of what happened to the other victims of the Nazi ers. Not to equate them; but one must see how a civilized country like Germany evolved into a murderous killing machine by first starting with groups such as the disabled and homosexuals and political opponents and then reached the point where they arrested my father and grandfather and sent them to Dachau on Kristallnacht. 17 members of my family perished in the Holocaust. But I am also gay and want the entire history of the era to be studied and show how discrimination can lead to death. "Never Again" is true for all of the victims!

I think that the entire city will gain from our Park when more history is there for people to read. You will read about the comparative numbers of victims, and how their treatments differed. But all should be memorialized.

We must remember the past and learn how to make sure it doesn't repeat. I hope to see everyone at the unveiling of the new markers and thank Supreme Memorials for donating the inscribing. The City is not paying the inscriptions.

Rick Landman, June 10, 2009
Co-chair of the International Association of Lesbian and Gay Children of Holocaust Survivors
www.infotrue.com

I supported the Holocaust Memorial Park from the onset, but was saddened when the Committee refused to inscribe the stone markers telling what happened to the other victims of the Nazi era. For 13 years my association requested that all of the other victim groups be memorialized. Remember the city owned Park was dedicated to them in addition to the 6 million Jews. I am not equating the groups, but believe that one needs to learn what happened to these groups in order to fully understand how a civilized country like Germany became a mass murdering machine. My own family lost 17 members during the Holocaust. We are now thankful to the Mayor that the full history will be told and all innocent victims will be memorialized. We also thank Supreme Memorials for their gracious donation of doing the inscribing pro bono.

"Our objective is to complete the original plan for the Holocaust Memorial Park by including these markers. One needs to learn how a civilized country like Germany developed into a murderous killing machine, by first starting out with persecuting and killing the other victims while planning the Holocaust. We are not equating the sufferings of any group and believe strongly in highlighting the extermination attempts towards the Jews. My own family lost 17 members and my grandma and grandpa were sole survivors (losing their siblings and parents and cousins). All of the victims of the Nazi era should have their stories told and their lives memorialized in this city owned public park. Paraphrasing Hillel, as Jews we must memorialize the 6 million who were murdered and fight genocide, but if we only focus on that part of history, what kind of people are we? We must study how the Holocaust came to be, and memorialized all those who were murdered."

"I am so excited that everyone is finally working together on adding to the educational and memorial aspects of the city owned Holocaust Memorial Park, by telling the story of what happened to the other victims of the Nazi Era. I look forward to the unveiling of the various stone markers."May 6, 2009
Rick Landman, International Association of Lesbian and Gay Children of Holocaust Survivors.

My father standing by the Dachau historical marker. He was interned in Dachau with his father on the day after Kristallnacht. 17 members of his family perished in the Holocaust. After coming to America, he joined the US Army and was at the liberation of Dachau and was the first American soldier to enter his hometown of Augsburg. More is available at www.infotrue.com.

"Dedicated officially in June 1985 by Mayor Edward Koch, the Mall has been the site of memorial programs... During these ten years, the Holocaust Memorial Committee has campaigned to have a permanent memorial to the victims of the Shoah erected at that site. With the funding allocated by Brooklyn Borough President Howard Golden, this dream is now a reality!

As New York's first public memorial to the Holocaust, this unique Memorial will stand for all time as a somber reminder of the millions of lives lost and the rich culture destroyed. An eternal light will shine in lasting memory of those who perished and as a beacon of hope for the future. A field of granite markers, inscribed with places and important historical events related to the Holocaust, will educate and inspire future generations to remember."

This is taken from the Holocaust Memorial Committee's brochure



This is New York City Parks Department's sign, naming the city park "Holocaust Memorial Mall".


This is a close-up of the center of the Memorial showing the eternal light and slab.


On the slab in front of the Monument it states, "This Memorial is dedicated... to the eternal memory of the six million Jewish men, women, and children methodically murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators during the Holocaust;
To the five million other innocent human beings who were also murdered under the German rule during World War II;
To the heroes of the ghettos and the Jewish armed resistance;
To the partisans and Allied Soldiers who fought for freedom;
To those who survived the horrors and degradation of the Nazis;
To the few righteous among the nations who risked their lives to shield those targeted for death;
And to all those who wage battle for freedom and human dignity.
Humanity must learn, understand, and remember so that will never happen again. REMEMBER!
You would think that they would be cooperative since the park is dedicated to the other vicims too!


Further down the slab it states,"As the Nazi tyranny under Adolf Hitler spread across Europe from 1933 to 1945, millions of innocent non-Jewish people were persecuted and murdered. As well caught up in the Nazi slaughter were more than 200,000 Gypsies (Roma and Sinti) and about 200,000 mentally or physically disabled persons. More than three million Soviet Prisoners of War were killed because of their nationality. Poles as well as other Slavs were tarageted for slave labor and as a result tens of thousands perished. Homosexuals and others deemed "anti-social" were persecuted and often murdered in addition thousands of political and religious dissidents such as communists, socialists, trade unionists, and Jehovah's Witnesses, were persecuted for their beliefs and behavior. Many of these individuals died as a result of maltreatment."We are appreciative that the main slab does mention the other victims, but we want one stone marker to be a physical place where people can go to learn more about what happened and to be able to remember those other victims who died.

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ALL WE ARE ASKING IS ONE STONE TO TELL WHAT HAPPENED AND TO SERVE AS A PLACE FOR PEOPLE TO REMEMBER THOSE HOMOSEXUALS WHO DIED! Unfortunately, Borough President Howard Golden has refused to even consider it.
In April 1999, I presented the following draft text and proposed that two new markers be added to the park. It was our hope that the Sheepshead Bay Holocaust Committee would have agreed to include the markers to tell the story of what happened to some of the other Victims of Nazism. It should be noted that the Memorial is on City land and was paid for by City taxpayers, and was dedicated to all of the victims of the Holocaust. To my disappoint the Borough President and the Committee decided in August, not to agree to the concept of adding the following two markers. Here is the proposed wording that was suggested for first marker.

NAZI PERSECUTION OF THE HOMOSEXUAL COMMUNITY

Homosexuals were among the first groups targeted by the Nazis. As early as May 6, 1933, Dr.Magnus Hirschfeld's Institute for Sexual Sciences was destroyed and its contents burned in the famous Berlin bonfires.

In 1935, the law against male homosexuality (Penal Code Paragraph 175) was revised to make it even easier to arrest homosexuals with the slightest of evidence. In 1936, Heinrich Himmler escalated the persecution, by forming the Committee to Combat Homosexuality and Abortion.

Approximately 100,000 men were arrested for being homosexual, and were either sent to prisons, penitentiaries, concentration camps, sanitariums or released to fight in the army. Approximately 10,000 were sent to concentration camps as "Pink Triangle" prisoners, where thousands died as a result of harsh conditions, hard labor, medical experimentation, beatings and point-blank murder.

After the war, while other inmates were liberated and given restitution, homosexuals continued to be subject to punishment under Paragraph 175 until its repeal in 1969.

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Click Here to see other Memorials to the Homosexual Persecution During the Holocaust

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The following are the words which we proposed to be inscribe on another marker in the Memorial Park.

NAZI PERSECUTION OF THE DISABLED

From as early as 1933 through the end of the war the Nazis forcibly sterilized 400,00 men and women with disabilities. They also murdered over 350,000 men, women and children who, because of their disabilities, were regarded as "useless eaters," and "lives not worth living."

In the winter of 1939-40, people with disabilities became the victims of the first, experimental gas chamber, a method expanded for use against all people with disabilities, and later as a vehicle for the entire Holocaust.

In hospitals (turned killing centers) doctors killed their own patients. The program "T-4" systematically sent adults with disabilities to their deaths via the gas chamber and lethal injection. Children's killing wards used starvation and deadly amounts of medication to eradicate the population of children with disabilities.

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UPDATE ON STATUS OF ADDING A MARKER FOR THE DISABLED AND HOMOSEXUALS KILLED DURING THE HOLOCAUST

In August I contact the Office of the Borough President of Brooklyn, (Howard Golden's Office) and spoke with his liasion for the Lesbian and Gay Community and I explained the sitution. To my disappointment the liasion informed me that the Borough President did not wish to get involved. So I went to the Office of the Comptroller (Alan G. Hevesi) and upon his liasion informing him of the situation, I was called immediately that Comptroller Hevesi would intervened on our behalf. We are now told the Borough President Howard Golden of Brooklyn is opposed to the placement of any markers representing what happened to the disabled or homosexuals during the Nazi Era. We are still trying to convince the Borough President that his views are discriminatory and not in keeping with the lessons of the Holocaust. I hope that we will be able to erect the two markers without having to seek any other legal remedies.

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Years ago, the following article appeared in the Sunday New York Times. Even though we sent several letters supporting the idea of markers for other victims, we never received any responses. It is our hope and feeling that over time, people have come to realize that to truly understand the impact of the Holocaust, one must remember all of what happened. This struggle will continue.

A Rift Opens Over 'Other Victims' at Holocaust Memorial

By SOMINI SENGUPTA
Published: August 18, 1996

Correction Appended

A city-funded Holocaust memorial under construction in Sheepshead Bay has become the focus of a debate about how to note the various groups who fell victim to the Nazis.

The Parks Department architect who designed the memorial -- a 14 1/2-foot steel tower surrounded by about 40 granite tablets resembling tombstones -- proposed adding 10 tablets as symbolic markers representing groups the Nazis persecuted, including homosexuals, Gypsies, Jehovah's Witnesses and Jews.

But the committee of citizens sponsoring the tower in Holocaust Memorial Park at Emmons Avenue and Shore Boulevard and the Brooklyn Borough President, Howard Golden, who poured nearly $700,000 into the project, have rejected the proposal, saying that the fate of each group is in the narrative inscribed at the base of the tower. It is estimated that, in addition to the 6 million Jews killed by the Nazis, about 5 million non-Jews, including disabled people, German homosexuals, Gypsies and Poles, were also killed.

''We felt it was redundant and did not have to be included because it was in the summary,'' said Ira Bilus of Manhattan Beach, a committee member.

Besides, Mr. Bilus said, the architect, George Vellonakis, was not responsible for content. ''He was commissioned to do the architecture and the design,'' he said. ''We were commissioned to do the writing.''

Mr. Vellonakis has continued to press for separate recognition of other groups. ''I really felt it was my responsibility to recognize every group and represent history properly,'' he said. ''As the artist and designer, it's my concept.''

His boss, Parks Commissioner Henry J. Stern, disagreed. ''This is a group of people who are mostly Jewish, Holocaust survivors, and they wanted to call attention, to memorialize the tragedy their people had suffered,'' he said.

Construction of the memorial began in 1994, Mr. Vellonakis said, but was held up by debate over its content. The city Art Commission gave final approval to the project last spring, and construction is scheduled to be completed by early next year, according to Mr. Bilus, whose group is gathering names to be inscribed on the memorial.

Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum, who heads Congregation Beth Simchat Torah, a largely lesbian and gay synagogue in Greenwich Village, said she favored the separate markers. ''I would support acknowledging these other victim groups,'' said Rabbi Kleinbaum, who sits on the advisory committee to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington. ''I don't think it takes away from or diminishes the enormity of the tragedy that the Jewish people suffered in the Holocaust.''

Debates over Holocaust commemorations are not unique to the Brooklyn memorial. The museum in Washington underwent similar discussions and opted to chronologically explain how the Nazis targeted different groups but singled out Jews for annihilation, said Michael Berenbaum, who directs the museum's research institute. Mr. Berenbaum, who reviewed the text of the Sheepshead Bay memorial, declined to comment on the current dispute.

''Inclusion is not equivalence, not saying that their fate was equivalent,'' he said. ''All the victims of Nazism are memorialized in the museum. The distinction between their fate and the fate of the Jews, subject to annihilation, is preserved.'' SOMINI SENGUPTA

Correction: September 1, 1996, Sunday

An article in the Neighborhood Report pages on Aug. 18 about a Holocaust memorial under construction in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, misstated the origin of its design. Markers commemorating 11 specific groups persecuted by the Nazis were part of the original design by the architect, George P. Vellonakis, but have since been dropped. The architect did not add 10 such tablets to his original proposal.

This is a close-up of a marker with the names of my greatgrandparents.

My father standing by the Dachau historical marker. He was interned there after Kristallnacht.

I am standing at the marker with my greatgrandparent's names.

This shows one of the "historical markers" that educates the public about a certain aspect of the Holocaust. The marker on Dachau does mention that homosexuals were interned there.

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For more information or to tell them about your feelings, contact:
The Holocaust Memorial Committee
60 West End Avenue
Brooklyn, New York 11235
Telephone- (718) 743-3636
You can pay $360 per name to have the names of people inscribed who perished in the Holocaust.

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